By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia– Three decades have passed since the Khmer Rouge caused the deaths of as many as two million Cambodians. Despite the long-awaited, and much-delayed, Khmer Rouge tribunal, many survivors and families of victims are beginning to speak out against the lack of justice, even though for the first time at an international criminal tribunal, victims have been represented as well as the defense and prosecutors.

Chem Mey, a 78-year old survivor, commented that he, “lost my family,” and that the regime “killed my children and my wife. Nobody had rights or freedom then. That’s why now I want to find justice – for the victims and the younger generation.” The former mechanic not only lost his family to the Khmer Rouge, he also suffered torture and beatings at the notorious S-21 detention center in Phnom Penh. At least 14,000 inmates passed through the tiny cells of Phnom Penh and torture chambers in the late 1970s; and Chum Mey is one of only three confirmed, living survivors.

At the tribunal, along with almost a hundred other people, Chum Mey was accepted as a civil party in the trial of the man who ran S-21, Kaing Guek Eav, commonly referred to as Comrade Duch.

After closing statements in November, civil parties like Chum Mey felt that their rights to speak and question witnesses had been restricted. Lawyers of many civil parties complained that little interest was shown in their testimony. According to one civil party lawyer, Silke Studzinsky, “They felt that the trial chamber was not very receptive to their sufferings.” She went on to say that “This left for them the impression that the trial chamber was rather uninterested in their stories.” Despite the frustration, various local and international lawyers worked with several different groups of victims through the closing statements, but there seemed to be little coordination among them.

Although it is too late to impact the trial of Duch, a second trial, believed unlikely to start until the middle of 2011 is expected to take a different approach to give voice to victims such as Chum Mey. Instead of a myriad of lawyers, there will be one lead counsel for the civil parties to mirror the approach taken by the prosecution and defense.

For more information, please see:

BBC World News – Khmer Rouge survivors feel justice denied -January 4, 2010

Earth Times – Historic Khmer Rouge tribunal has lessons for the world – December 13, 2009

Phnom Penh Post – Genocide charges laid at KRT – December 17, 2009